Cirque du Soleil brings 'Luzia' to Boston

By R. Scott Reedy/For The Patriot Ledger

Tuesday

Jun 19, 2018 at 3:00 PM

If you think you’ve seen all that Cirque du Soleil has to offer, you might be all wet.

While there will be plenty of awe-inspiring acrobatics in “Luzia: A Waking Dream of Mexico,” opening June 27 under Le Grand Chapiteau at Suffolk Downs in Boston, there will also be some slick, new twists.

In firsts for a touring production from the Quebec-based Cirque, it will rain on stage and the show will be sung entirely in Spanish.

“Our writer and director, Daniele Finzi Pasca, lived in Mexico for 10 years and spent a lot of time exploring Mexican culture. What he's done with ‘Luzia,’ with help from associate director Brigitte Poupart, is to create an imaginary Mexico that honors what he saw in his time there," said artistic director Gracie Valdez during a recent interview at the Eliot Hotel in Boston.

“There’s a lot on the country’s mythology and folklore, and nods to traditional Mexican culture. All of it, though, is an imaginary representation,” she said.

The show – Cirque’s 38th original production since its founding in 1984 – takes audiences to a dream-like Mexico where light (“luz” in Spanish) soothes the spirit and rain (“lluvia”) calms the soul, according to Valdez.

Water is both a source of inspiration and a major theme of the production, which has been touring North America for two years. A large basin of water under the stage is used to create a water curtain.

“We’re always striving to find the latest technologies to incorporate into our productions. We look for the best acrobats, of course, but we also find exciting ways to bring traditional acrobatics into set designs that incorporate new technology,” says Valdez.

And sometimes it is the combination of new and old technology that make that excitement possible. “Luzia” brings the Cyr wheel into a new context, for example – an acrobatics and aerial trapeze act in the rain. To address the obvious adhesion problem, the designers mounted a bicycle tire on the wheel rim.

New technologies create new challenges for the performers, too, but also new opportunities. Seattle native Kelly McDonald –a flyer in the “Adagio” act, member of the Pole Dancing group, and trapeze alternate – says she is always ready, rain or shine, for whatever comes her way.

“I’ve worked in rain in other shows before joining Cirque, but this is different. You’re working in apparatus designed by expert engineers.

“The weight is different, and where you can breathe is different, too. You just adjust and go with it. And the sound of the water falling and the breeze the rain creates are just amazing,” says McDonald.

A competitive gymnast in high school and college, McDonald joined Cirque when the design and planning of “Luzia” were getting under way.

“I’ve been with ‘Luzia’ for two-and-a-half years – the first seven months during the creation of the show – and I’ve been on the road with it ever since.

“It’s my duty to be fresh and physically prepared for every show. That’s my priority and part of what keeps me excited by what I do for a living. Your 800th show is the first for someone in the audience,” says McDonald.

In a nod to classic Mexican cinema, the “Adagio” act in “Luzia” takes place in a smoky dance hall, where three porters hurl a flyer above their heads so that she can perform intricate flips in mid-air.

“The ‘Adagio’ number is a fusion of dance and hand-to-hand acrobatics. The guys swing me very high. It’s seamless, more like dance than acrobatics,” points out McDonald.

That dance is set to music from a score by Simon Carpentier that features a distinctive Latin-American sound, according to Valdez.

“Simon’s score whisks audiences away on a wide-ranging exploration from a traditional village to a desert – by way of a tropical jungle – to the seaside, and then to an alleyway in a bustling city.

“The music jumps with joyful abandon from one style to the next, from one emotion to another, striding across landscapes as joyfully as across musical boundaries,” says Valdez, a Los Angeles native who grew up in Vienna, Virginia.

In addition to the singing, the dancing, and the rain, “Luzia” also showcases hoop diving onto gigantic treadmills, a male contortionist twisting his body into unimaginable positions, an Aerial Straps specialist seemingly defying gravity, and two freestyle soccer players who mix street dance with dazzling ball play.

“We recently celebrated the second anniversary of this show and it is completely different than any we have brought to Boston in the past.

“In this story, we transport the audience to a Mexico filled with gorgeous, colorful sights, beautiful music, and spectacular acrobatics,” says Valdez. “As soon as you enter the big top, you’re in a place like nowhere you have ever been before.”

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